Health and Social Care Bill — Should Secretary of State for Health "Secure" or "Provide or Secure" Services — 7 Sep 2011 at 18:00

Mark Hoban MP, Fareham voted for a law saying the Secretary of State must "secure" rather than "provide or secure: the provision of services under the Health and Social Care Bill.

The majority of MPs voted for a law saying the Secretary of State must secure rather than provide or secure the provision of services under the Health and Social Care Bill. If there is any substantive change in meaning between the two versions has been subject to debate.

MPs were considering the Health and Social Care Bill[1]. This vote was on an amendment[2][3] put forward by Owen Smith MP which read:

page 2, line 7, leave out subsection (2) and insert—

(2) The Secretary of State must for that purpose provide or secure the provision of services in accordance with this Act.’.

This would have affected clause 1 of the Bill[4] which is titled "Secretary of State’s duty to promote comprehensive health service"; the text in the amendment would have replaced what was originally present in subsection 2, which was:

For that purpose, the Secretary of State must exercise the functions conferred by this Act so as to secure that services are provided in accordance with this Act.

The amendment sought to restore language seen in Section 1(1) of the National Health Service Act of 1946[5] and Section 1(1) of the National Health Service Act 2006.[6]

During consideration in committee Grahame Morris MP (Easington, Labour) explained his concern about the clause in the Bill[4] and why he preferred the version proposed by the amendment (and seen in the 1946 Act)[7]:

Our concerns about the clause, voiced in the original Committee, were that the Secretary of State sought to reduce the accountability of his role in the delivery of health services.

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